Viewing Category: Food
At long last, Jeff and I visited Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square. It's right on Mass Ave, near the Hong Kong restaurant. The rumor was that this was where you could get some of the best burgers in Boston, and possibly the best onion rings. Thus began The Burgering, Part II...
On the way to the Burger Cottage, I passed these placards that extolled the virtues of vegetarianism. Their argument was somewhat undermined by the "switching to vegetarianism is easy!" placard, which showed various substitute products for beloved American meats. Which just said to me...Americans love meat...this put me in the mood to enjoy an excellent burger experience. Meat Lovers:1! Vegetarians:0!
The establishment itself was a single largish room with tables crammed together. Seating was prompt and courteous. Although it was a rather muggy day, and therefore not the best weather for enjoying fried food, I gamely ordered the Deluxe Burger Platter, which came with fries and the famous onion rings. The Deluxe Burger is just a plain hamburger that costs almost 9 bucks, but I wanted to taste the unadulterated pure burger experience. Of course, I ordered rare. And for a side, I also ordered the sweet potato fries.
The sweet potato fries arrived quickly, and I found them pretty tasty. They were fairly chunky fries: thicker than a McD's fry but not a wedge. I'd say they were maybe 2x the thickness of a McD's fry. Still, I would have to say the sweet potato fries at Ryles are better if you like a crisper texture; the Bartley's version was a little "deflated'. The regular fries were good, but nothing about them stood out in particular.
The onion rings I found disappointing. Mine were coated with a light batter that fell off the rings, and had a slight powdery taste. The batter wasn't browned, and actually smelled a bit like raw fish. Maybe it was the oil. I might have gotten a bad batch, but I wasn't that impressed. I like a slightly crisper, stickier batter and more caramelized onion flavor.
As for the burger itself: not bad. The patty was formed by hand, and had a nice char on it. It didn't taste of wood smoke or charcoal, though, but it was competently seared. The inside was rare as I asked, and overall the burger had a good texture. Sometimes the ground meat is over-mixed and becomes kind of pasty in texture...not so with this burger, which puts it ahead of the Martha's Exchange burger I had last night.
The bun had a very neutral taste. The bottom of the bun wasn't coated with butter or mayonaise, so the juices tended to soak the bun as you ate. As I had ordered the plain hamburger, there were no fixin's on it to detract from the pure taste of beef: juicy but unseasoned. The phrase that came to mind was that this was An Honest Burger, unpretentious and uncomplicated.
Overall, I found the experience to be a little lacking compared to the after-hours Brasserie Jo burger I had had a few weeks ago. That burger wins on the fragant toasted bun and tasteful seasoning of the charcoal-grilled hand-formed patty. It was a more memorable tasting experience.
I will go back to Bartley's on a less muggy day and try one of their special burgers, which might be more of a fair comparison. The Quest for Great New England burgers continues!
Tomorrow I'm going to Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square to sample their famous burgers.
I had a burger at Martha's Exchange here in Nashua to serve as "the control". Unfortunately I had to get it to go, since they had stopped seating for the night. It was still nice of them to put my order in. Anyway, Martha's is known in this town for having pretty decent burgers, served rare if you ask. My "Texas Burger" was pretty good...nice and rare! Not bad at all. There is a disparity between the taste of the burger meat and the butter-toasted bun though...they just don't quite go together for me. I think the burger to really try is probably the Gorgonzola Burger, which I'll get next time I get there in time to be seated.
I imagine this week we'll be grilling too for the 4th of July weekend. My sis is coming with entourage in tow, so I'm looking forward to some good eatin'. Let there be watermelon!
I've been to Not Your Average Joe's a couple of times now for lunch, and both times I've had a delightful time. The food, the service, and the atmosphere were excellent! I like this place a lot.
The first time, I had an exquisitely-prepared mustard-crusted chicken...I was amazed that it was cooked just right, the tender breast still juicy and firm-but-not-tight. The string beans were not overcooked either, retaining enough crunch to be interesting. The second time I had the grilled black angus sirloin meatloaf, the comfort food favorite with a mix-in of smoked gouda and chipotle (a pepper I've recently been into lately). This was pretty good too, though not as amazing as I'd hoped. I'd call it "meatloaf plus"...it's still meatloaf, with just a bit of extra kick. The amazing experience of the day was undeniably was S's salad, almond crusted goat cheese "served warm over mixed baby greens with raspberries, caramelized pepper pecans and our raspberry vinagrette". The warm goat cheese was amazing; though as the cheese cooled to room temperature it lost its potency. I wonder if all goat cheeses kick such ass when warmed up.
Prices for lunch entrees range from $6 to $15. The atmosphere and service were very nice. The decor reminded me of WIRED magazine: neon colors sheathed in trendy, design-conscious form. It wouldn't be a bad place for a casual-but-fun lunch date.
Not Your Average Joes
Locations in Arlington, Beverly, Dartmouth, Hyannis, Lexington, Methuen, Needham, Newbury, Randolph, and Watertown. I've been to the Lexington and Arlington locations, both were very nice.
I was at the local 7-11 to get a Slurpee®, only to find that the store was closing for good, and all their machines were busted. Quel horreur!
Thinking quickly but not clearly, I got a Choco Taco® ice cream novelty instead. Maybe the novelty of the form would rescue an otherwise disappointing visit to the convenience store, I reasoned in a haze of self-denial.
The Choco Taco consists of a sugar cone in "taco form", with ice cream and caramel and peanuts heaped in it, then covered with chocolate. Now I usually like this combination of ingredients, and I like the idea of the taco. Unfortunately, this just tasted...well, not very good. Waxy-tasting chocolate coated the rather bland vanilla ice cream, its monotony lifted not-at-all by stale shards of peanut wallowing in a slurry of caramel. Perhaps it was the artificial flavoring, or maybe it was just a really old sample. In any case, it wasn't to my taste. Kids might like it though.
I like to think there are "worthy carbs" and "unworthy carbs". Fresh-baked italian bread from the bakery dipped in extra-virgin olive oil with a bit of fresh-ground pepper and basil...those are worthy carbs. Then there's the Choco Taco. Those are 290 calories I wish I could have back.
In a moment of weakness, I purchased a $1.29 package of Little Debbie® Nutty Bars™ at the local supermarket. I love peanut butter, I was hungry, I spent the money.
I had 2 of them yesterday, when they were still somewhat warm from the car ride home. The outside chocolate was a bit runny. Didn't like it.
I let them chill a bit in the fridge, which fixed the issues with the runny chocolate but revealed a greater weakness. The peanut butter was terrible, tasting mostly of bland hydrogenated oils or filler. Peanut butter shouldn't be refrigerated I know, but this was astonishingly bad even accounting for that. It was like eating a peanut-scented stick of lip balm.
Also, like many American sweet snacks, far too much sugar overpowering any chocolate or peanut flavor. Not intended for adult tastes, I imagine. After eating only 2 and a half of the wafers, I threw the entire package into the trash.
Yuck.
I recently had a really great burger at a place called Brasserie Jo in Boston. Served rare, nicely seared on the outside, the hint of charcoal permeating the entire experience. This got me thinking...the sear is very important for locking in juices. How could I get this to work on my gas grill, with its anemic BTU output?
Maybe if I got a cast iron skillet for it, and got it really hot. I got this Lodge pre-seasoned skillet and plopped it on my cheap-o grill. The theory was I could get it much hotter, without fear of smoking up my house, outside. So I'm thinking of the grill more as an outside cooking area. It's gas, so I'm not expecting much in the way of charcoal flavor in the first place.
So, I figured I would get some hamburger patties and try cooking them for various lengths of time to see if I could get them to at least look good. Since the skillet can sustain the high searing temperature longer than the thin wires on the grill surface, I'm thinking that burger will end up with a nice crust courtesy of the maillard reaction. The juices, also trapped by the skillet instead of falling onto the bottom of the grill, would help contribute to forming the crust. What I wasn't sure of, though, was whether the juices should be allowed to form the crust, or whether those were better allowed to drip away. I figured they might help seal the other juices in, so heck why not try it?
Here's one side of the burger after 3 minutes. The sear really hasn't formed, and there's only a few bits of goodness. The result: edible, but not amazing. The photo was taken, unfortunately, on an overcast day, so there is a lot of blue in the coloring.
Here's one side of another burger after 4 minutes. The sear has formed, but also some burning has occured.
Upon showing these pictures to cousin Ben, he suggests that a time between 3 and 4 minutes would be ideal. He observed that I'm basically frying / boiling the burger in its own juices, which isn't that cool. I'm not convinced it's a BAD thing, especially given the nature of gas grills to begin with. It comes down to whether the juices, trapped between skillet and burger, aid in the forming of a tasty crust.
He also pointed out that yucky goo that oozes out of the side of the burger when you pan-fry...the gray bubbling stuff. We're thinking this stuff gets vaporized on a truly immersive high-heat environment.
Next round of tests: I'm going to lightly salt the outside of the burger to help draw more liquid to the surface to aid in the searing process. Also, will try high-heat under a closed grill. Suggestions welcome!
House Foods is a Japanese company that makes Instant Curry. I love instant curry mix. I found out that House has showcase restaurants on the West Coast. On a recent visit, I roped in my friend Mark to take me to one near his house in Irvine.
The restaurant was manned by what appeared to be actual Japanese managers from the mother company. We were seated quickly, and with growing excitement I took in the decor: unassuming formica tables, fake plants...just what I would have expected from a non-nonsense curry establishment. I explained to Mark that this was no ordinary curry house...it was THE House of Curry. He was suitably impressed, having had no idea prior to this.
I ordered plain Chicken Curry, just like I make it from the mix. I wanted to know what it was supposed to taste like, and see if I perhaps was not doing it right. To my relief, it tasted exactly right. Mark, on the other hand, got some kind of Hamburger Katsu Curry: breaded hamburger patty, deep fried, with curry sauce poured on top. Looked and tasted good. They had all kinds of other dishes...I think I brought a menu home with me, so I can get an idea of what else I can try making.
We got some Curry Pan to go. They're kind of like a jelly donut in construction, except deep fried and filled with pipin' hot curry. So, so good.
I like bamboo shoots, but never really knew where they came from. I saw a link to Joi Itoi's takenoko how-to photo set on Boing Boing. Looks delicious.
:http://egseah.mindsay.com
This past Saturday I went to visit [Emily] and Robert in Providence, Rhode Island. The mission: eat authentic Italian food. So we went to Federal Hill on Atwells Ave, which regarded as the area's Little Italy.
First stop was Venda Ravioli, which was a small indoor market bustling with counters piled high with fresh Italian meats, cheeses, and pasta. The building itself was pretty cool, particularly the polished tin ceiling. It was around 1230PM, so the place was a bit crowded and we couldn't sit down. Everything looked really good...if I wasn't starving, I would have liked to spent more time browsing. Em said that they liked to get some antipasto there and a tomato and basil and mozzarella salad.
We walked along Atwells Ave looking for a restaurant. We saw the sign for Camille's, which Robert said had some kind of Frank Sinatra connection. It was closed for lunch, but we peeked inside and saw the richly-appointed interior and lounge area.
On the way back we stopped by some touristy looking place that Robert said was actually well regarded by some. It was very empty looking and we liked the menu, so we went inside to the "AAA 4-diamond rated" Mediterraneo.
And here's where I realize I should have taken notes, because I didn't remember the names of anything we ordered. Emily though has filled me in from their menu:
CAPRESE
CAH-PRAY-ZEH
"Balsamic marinated grape tomatoes, homemade mozzarella and fresh basil drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar." One of my favorite combinations. The tomatoes weren't that amazing, but overall very nice.
CARPACCIO DI MANZO
CAHR-PACHOE DEE MAHN-ZOH
"Paper-thin raw beef tenderloin, arugula, extra large caper berries, topped with fresh squeezed lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese." The extra large caper berries were surprisingly tasty. The beef was kind of hard to scrape off the plate, but it was a tasty dish.
MOZZARELLA IN CARROZZA
MOTZ-ZAH-RELL-AH EEN CAH-ROTZ-AH
"Fresh homemade mozzarella stuffed with prosciutto di Parma and fresh basil then breaded and pan-fried. Served with a side of San Marzano tomato-basil sauce." Deep fried and filled with cheese! Yet surprisingly not as heavy as I thought it would be. Probably because it wasn't super salty.
PENNE ALL' ARRABBIATA
PEN-NAY AHL ARA-BEE-AH-TAH
"Pen-shaped pasta in a hot and spicy San Marzano plum tomato sauce, sautéed in olive oil, hot pepperoncini, garlic and parsley."
FUSILLI ALLA VODKA
FOO-ZEE-LEE AH-LA VAWD-CAH
"Spiral-shaped pasta in a pink sauce made from San Marzano plum tomatoes, butter, onions, pancetta (Italian bacon), vodka and cream."
TAGLIATELLE ALLA BOLOGNESE
TAHL-YAH-TAY-LEH AH-LA BOW-LOAN-YEZEH
"Fresh egg noodle pasta topped with a sauce composed of chunks of stewed veal, beef, pork, San Marzano plum tomatoes and a touch of cream." This is what I ordered. The various meats were blended together into a kind of tasty hash, and mixed in with the tomato sauce. The balance between the texture of the egg noodles and the complexity of the sauce was quite a revelation.
(Em notes: We drank whatever chianti that they gave us...we didn't ask for more details. :)
Lunch was a little pricey, but very good. The pasta was served al dente, which Robert said was pretty rare to find these days. He also said that Mediterraneo was a pretty "hip" place for things like celebrity signings and so forth, so he'd never gone. For lunch at 130PM on an overcast Saturday, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Not bad at all.
For dessert, we went to Dolce Vita, a neat little cafe that served gelato and ice cream truffles. I got some kind of giant ice cream truffle with an espresso, and we hung out. Em says they have good sandwiches, so I think it's definitely worth a trip back.
We also stopped by a cool stationary / furniture store called Figments Design. It had all kinds of interesting cards, stationary, and personal office objects that I would have wanted to buy...I forget how cool it is to visit a real stationary store, as opposed to some soulless office warehouse place like Staples. We chatted with the owner for a good hour...really nice place. I saw an aluminum checkbook cover that I wanted for no good reason.
My sister told me about an article by one of our favorite writers, Jeffrey Steingarten, in which goes to England to hunt woodcock. He buys all the right gear, but unhappily leaves it all on the train by accident. The article, "To Kill A Woodcock", was one of three that landed Steingarten a 2005 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award Nomination. We'll find out in May whether he won or not.
Anyway, this got me thinking about Wild Turkeys, the bird that Benjamin Franklin thought to be a more fitting National Symbol than the Bald Eagle. A cunning, wily bird, the American Wild Turkey has made a comeback from extinction here in New Hampshire thanks to the efforts of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. And with that, comes Spring Turkey Hunting Season.
I've never hunted in my life, but I remember my Dad's best friend "Uncle Daniel" who used to hunt pheasant and rabbits in (of all places) Taiwan. I remember eating something at his family's house once that had pellets in it that I had to pick out. And what could be more American than hunting the Wild Turkey? Jeffrey Steingarten did it in England, so I'm sure he's be fine with hunting turkeys. This is a part of America that I have not experienced. If I eat meat, I should consider getting it myself. Who knows...the experience might turn me into a vegetarian.
I don't know if I could shoot a bunny or a deer, but a big old bird might be OK, especially if I eat it. Maybe I should start with catching fish first and see how I feel about it. And read Steingarten's article.
